Thank you for chiming in... I believe the OP's watch has been relumed, but otherwise it's just beautiful!
for help with the above, we ought to call @kov @Spacefruit @gemini4 ... please join us here and share your thoughts/opinion on the OP's watch..
-69, straight writing for comparison . Also slightly shrunken lume plots . Lume on OPs doesn't bother me, fwiw.
I think the dial is ok, taken for itself. The combination raises questions, I didn't even initally get it's really SW..internal filtering I assume..
You leave the house for one minute to go cross country skiing and you miss all the action! I’m still eager to see which serial range the watch falls in. Sounds like OP has an extract so that shouldn’t be hard to find out. Once that’s confirmed he can sell it to me dibs!
It is a beautiful watch, especially the dail. Once you zoom into the pictures, it appears whoever relumed the hands did the exact same sloppy job on the lume plots. Just my opinion for what it’s worth.
I also think it looks like a relume. The dial also has some damage around the outside presumably from an incorrect tension ring at some point.
Ok. I have no affiliation with OP nor any the fighting nerds here The request to see the movement would help to understand whether the bezel and caseback don't belong to this watch or the dial is potentially coming from a premoon Speedy, based on the following I assume : - usually the brown dials are observed with serials 2911xxxx or 2960xxxx - 29M serials are Premoon, hence DON is expected If the seller stated the hands have been relumed, I must say it's been well done to match the dial. My own observations about the chocolate dials (like this one) are that the lume on such dials is often damaged, if not totally fallen off or washed. It's VERY rare to observe a chocolate dial with intact lume. Nevertheless, I have already observed this sort of "toothpaste" lume. Either it was applied that way (and usually covers quite well the white line), or it dried up, lume partially fell off and the remainder looks like above. In any case it's an eye catcher and - relumed or not - nobody will catch your wrist in the wild and check it with UV to find out. There are lots of opinions about relume. I think I'd rather have a well done relumed watch (as long as disclosed by the seller) than a watch that doesn't look homogenous.
I've bypassed most of this thread but although the dial looks like one we would expect to see in a 29,11xxxx serial (with a DoN) it could be seen in a SW. The DNN bezel is correct for a SW. The plots look completely original to me. A serial would help clarify but ultimately this type of dial (tropical or not) is correct for both the SW and the earlier 29mil 145.022-69's with DoN.
The serial # is critical here to make a determination as it would help in piecing together the puzzle. If the serial is outside the tropical range then we know the dial was swapped and the hands were perfectly matched. In this scenario, I would also question the originality of the lume. If the serial is within the tropical tolerance, then the case back and bezel were swapped for one reason or another. At least in this scenario I would think the watch to be less of a franken than scenario 1. Bezel could have been replaced during service and the case back could be a SW service caseback?? Third scenario is that is a rare bird and all established and accepted norms don’t apply.
I disagree with this. The 'known' serial ranges for tropical dials are not hard and fast. They help us say what is more likely but seeing a tropical dial outside of this range doesn't mean the dial has been swapped. Seeing a tropical outside of the commonly seen serial ranges may justify more scrutiny but it could well be completely correct.
I agree with @Davidt. I’ve seen tropical dial 145.022-69 outside of the “range” on both pre moon and SW examples . Below are 5 examples (not necessarily tropical) with consistent lume. All different than the OP example
I agree wit this - different factors make the dials turn tropical - the serial ranges are known for a specific dial finishing that turns brown in time, used for a short period in production; the other serials can be affected by external factors that influence on dial condition.
I also agree. I know less than many on this forum but tropical dials are seen on references from 2915’s onwards and logic would suggest that that the conditions to produce a tropical dial might also produce one on a dial outside the usual serial number ranges seen and quoted in this thread.
A few tidbits to address some of the comments/questions that have come up. 1. Serial -> Serial starts with 3284.. and was delivered to Spain where the watch spent the vast majority of its life. From what I understand, there have been tropical examples in this later range that have popped up (although less common than those in the DON range). But feel free to speculate! 2. Tension ring damage -> I was aware of this when I made my purchase and seller was forthcoming about this. 3. Lume discussion - > a few points below (a) I'm glad that other examples of "toothpaste" lume within the markers exists. I really didn't think this would be controversial and it only took a quick google search to see other examples of the same. To me, its aesthetically pleasing exactly the way it is. (b) As to speculation that the plots were relumed by the person who relumed the hands. I've seen a UV video whereby all plots glow consistently and fade quickly once the light is taken off. The hands however react differently to the same UV exposure. Again, I can't prove a negative and the next thing someone is going to say is that there were two relumers. 4. Case back - I'm not sure its worth a pic of the caseback. It's just a straightwriting caseback that's not more remarkable than any other.